Man who sent meth recipes to police convicted of drug making

Man who sent letters to police criticizing their accounts of how to make meth found guilty of drug charges.

A Northampton County jury has found Michael L. Williams guilty of operating… (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO, THE…)

July 10, 2013|By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

The Easton man wasn't just caught with methamphetamine ingredients in his room and in the trash outside his home.

After Michael L. Williams' arrest in January, he also began penning letters to police, criticizing their accounts of how the drug was manufactured as uninformed.

That's not how you do it, he wrote Easton Inspector Salvatore Crisafulli. Here's a better recipe. But I'm innocent.

It took a Northampton County jury two hours Wednesday to decide Williams really wasn't, finding the 52-year-old man guilty of manufacturing meth, operating a meth lab and two other related drug offenses.

President Judge Stephen Baratta scheduled sentencing for Sept. 6. The two most serious charges bring guidelines that recommend a minimum term ranging from 35 to 45 months in prison, Assistant District Attorney Michele Kluk said.

On Jan. 17, police searched the curbside trash outside Williams' 1415 Pine St. home, finding three plastic bottles used to cook meth, as well as other meth-making products. They raided the house, and discovered more ingredients inside.

Pieces of paper contained recipes for the drug in Williams' handwriting, Kluk said. So did his letters to Crisafulli, in which Williams also offered to serve as an informant, and to explain to authorities what caused a meth lab in northeast Bethlehem to explode in March, according to Kluk.

"He sent letters with all the ingredients [for meth] to the inspector, criticizing his expertise," Kluk said.

Defense attorney Christopher Shipman argued at trial that Williams was set up by two druggies who had recently been arrested and were looking to shift police attention to someone else. Shipman conceded the defendant was an addict, but said the meth lab bottles and most of the ingredients were found outside in the trash, where they could have been pitched by someone else.

Among the state's evidence was a bottle of black liquid that tested positive for meth. Kluk said the liquid represented the waste product generated when the drug is manufactured.

Williams contended it was a different kind of waste: his own urine, mixed with coffee and beer.

"He shouldn't be punished for urinating in a bottle," Shipman told the jury, "because he is either too high or too lazy to go and use the bathroom."

Jurors heard those closing arguments Wednesday morning. Before the panel was brought into the courtroom, Kluk spread all the ingredients seized by police on the table in front of her, so that she could use them as props as she spoke.

There were packages of cold medicine, cut up batteries and cans of lighter fluid, along with baking soda and cold compresses. A large, sealed glass jar contained the black liquid waste.

Shipman came by and made an offer to Kluk.

If he drank that jar, the public defender asked, would she drop all the charges against his client?